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News
Montgomery panel to consider allowing billboards : News : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisMontgomery panel to consider allowing billboards
| Plan commission to consider issue next Thursday evening
| by John Etheredge
| 1/10/2013
|
Should the Village of Montgomery's sign ordinance be amended to permit electronic billboard signs?
That's the question the village plan commission will take up when they gather for their first meeting of the new year.
The meeting will begin next Thursday, Jan. 17 beginning at 7 p.m. in the board room at village hall, 200 North River Street. The session is open to the public.
Last month the village board instructed the village's staff to research ways in which electronic billboard signs might be permitted under the village's sign ordinance.
The commission is responsible for rendering an advisory recommendation on the issue to the board. The board, will in turn, cast the final ballot on any changes to the sign ordinance.
A prior village board voted in 2006 to amend the sign ordnance to outlaw billboard signs. Existing billboard signs were 'grandfathered in' under the ordinance, but some have been taken down since the ban was put into place.
In addition, a study commissioned by, and later adopted by the board in 2004, recommended that "pole signs, pylon signs and billboards" should be not permitted in the Orchard Road corridor.
The board's decision to revisit the billboard issue was prompted by a request from an Indiana-based company, Lamar Advertising, for a variance from the sign ordinance to allow for the installation of an electronic LED billboard sign along the east side of Orchard Road, north of Aucutt Road.
As proposed by Lamar Advertising, the sign would be mounted on a 30 foot tall pole and flash six advertising messages every 10 seconds on a billboard measuring 12 feet high and 25 feet wide at the corner of Aucutt and Orchard roads.
Shawn Pettit of Lamar Advertising told board members his firm would initially like to install a single sided sign with messages that could be viewed by northbound traffic on Orchard Road.
If there is enough demand from advertisers, Lamar Advertising would like to install a second LED display on the north side of the sign that would flash messages to southbound Orchard Road traffic, according to Pettit.
The sign would replace a conventional billboard sign that has stood near the intersection for the past 30 years.
The Kane County Division of Transportation (KDOT) previously acquired the land the current sign now stands on to provide additional right-of-way needed to widen Orchard Road to five lanes. Since KDOT prohibits billboard signs to be placed in the public right-of-way, the existing sign must be removed.
As a result, Lamar Advertising filed the request for the variance to install the new LED billboard sign on private property owned by Don Hamman, just outside the county's right-of-way at the intersection.
If eventually installed, the LED billboard would not generate any revenues for the village since it is located on private property. However, Pettit said his firm would allow the village to post messages on the sign for community events, police alerts and other items of interest on a space available basis.
During a board meeting Nov. 27, board members Andy Kaczmarek and Bill Keck voiced support for allowing the sign.
Kaczmarek noted it would be installed at "no cost to the village."
He added he is not concerned about the lights on the sign being overly bright.
"I go through Indiana a lot of times and I don't see a big distraction at all on those-they are just like a regular billboard or street signs," Kaczmarek said.
Keck noted the "there is very little residential" along the Orchard Road corridor and Lamar is proposing to move the sign even further away from existing homes.
"I see these signs. There are a whole bunch of them along I-294," Keck said.
He added, "I just see this as an opportunity to be business friendly, which we talk about often. Businesses thrive and survive on advertisements. I think this is a win-win for a our area."
Board member Matt Brolley, however, voiced opposition to amending the sign ordinance.
Brolley noted the village has made progress in removing billboard signs since amending the sign ordinance in 2006.
"It has been our long standing policy to not allow billboard signs and we've been working towards getting rid of those," he said.
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